Outside of James Cameron's 20-minute soliloquy about Avatar, I can't remember the names of any of the people who spoke at Ubisoft's conference. However, I empathized with the man confessing his addiction to Lumines more than I did with any other speaker at E3.

Lumines is possibly the only game I've had to force myself to stop playing in order to get my life back. If not the only game, it's at least the one I suffered the worst addiction to.

I think Lumines - along with much of Tetsuya Mizoguchi's work, is brilliant in almost every way. It's simple, it's accessible, it has depth, and most importantly it has style - style that helped usher in style unlike any style that ever came before.

There's a reason certain games are called "Miz" games. Starting with Rez, that title has represented a marriage of production elements that is unique not only in videogames, but in entertainment period. "Miz," in my opinion, is one of the shining modern examples of roads that videogames alone are able to travel.

Making the player a more direct contributor to the audio/visual experience some say gives off the effect of "inhabiting the music." I prefer to call Lumines a game that I can simultaneously see with my eyes, hear with my ears, master with my thumbs, and feel in my very soul.

Like any good puzzle game, Lumines's gameplay mechanic seems as simple as can be at the outset - just make squares of solid colors. The process of doing that however reveals combos and tricks to be learned. Then there's how the rules of each level are actually determined by the nature of the music.

Almost all of Q Entertainment's games are set up like albums. They're sort of the videogame representation of music albums (even more so than the recent crop of music games). Like having favorite songs on my albums, I also have favorite skins in Lumines that, combined with my honed skill in the game put me very much "in the zone."

Y'know, that state of mind you reach when you decide to stop thinking and your brain shuts out everything other than the game? Lumines became so effective at putting me in this state that I began using it not just as the background game in my life, but also as a tool.

I believe I was getting into Lumines II and Brain Age around the same time. For months I at least took the daily brain age calculation tests every day. Eventually I found that I actually did better if I did them right after a game of Lumines because it got my brain started up. Thus, Lumines became a part of that process, and that put me down the slippery slope until I flat-out admitted I had a problem.

It started one night when I had to stay up studying. When I felt myself starting to slip, I decided to throw on a game of Lumines to keep my brain active. What it became was not some trivial game, but an eternal goddamn war.

Not to gloat, but for some reason, I had gotten so good at Lumines that I simply could not die. I had become immortal somehow. I guess I should've expected this when the average game for me was a 30-minute session topping off at 300,000 points. Eventually, I had to put the PSP in sleep mode and continue the game the next day.

For six days my PSP - which at the time I actually used for media functionality other than gaming, was held prisoner by this game that would not end. Oh I could've just turned the damn thing off, but I had to see how far I could take this thing score-wise. I had to go out like a man.

Usually when you're about to die in Lumines but you get that one perfect screen-clearing combo it's the most awesome thing, but around day four I was just like "goddamnit" every time that happened. It was like that episode of Samurai Jack where Jack encounters the Viking who was imprisoned in an armor of magma until he could die an honorable death.

When it ended, I finally told myself "No More." I cleaned myself up, kicked Lumines and have only taken periodic hits of Lumines Supernova on the PS3 since. Even then however, a single game will still end up lasting longer than it's supposed to, which is why I still handle the stuff with caution.

Lumines is pretty much the only game on this list that's done that to me. I mean I've been drawn into other games for long expanses of time, but not even Tetris proved to be the crack addiction in your pocket that Lumines became for me. How does that not guarantee a spot on this list?

Lumines is probably the one PSP game that more than any other needs to be downloadable. I'd probably be safer actually if I didn'thave the game in my PSP at all times.

My favorite Lumines skin is ROUNDABOUT. I still play it on my computer and in my car regularly.

If it's one of the most popular songs in the game, why is Mondo Grosso's Shinin' - the skin whose background is the Japanese cover of the game, only present on the original Lumines and Lumines Pluson the PS2?

Got done with Prototype in a marathon that ended at 5am. Yes it is very similar to inFAMOUSbut also fundamentally different. I hope I can successfully go in-depth about it in my next suite101 article.

Now let's just hope BlazBluecan get here.

Next Favorite Hint: It's a game that lead on the PC but was ported to damnnear everything else and got a lot of love. Like a lot of games on this list, it came out in 2005.

Fresh

Man, Lumines was the first PSP game I remember getting. Still
have it. I fell in love with it as soon I cleared the first line
and got the full taste of the song going. Q Entertainment has
tried to top themselves by creating similar games, but I think is
there crowning acheivement so far.

I love Lumines

I'm probably in the minority, but I prefer Lumines II to the
original. The multiple difficulties and extra modes made me keep
playing it more. I also picked up Supernova last year, but I just
wasn't hooked on it like I was the 2 PSP games.